I, Joseph, did return unto the Grove, with my Brother, and did behold that the personages I did speak to the previous day were there again.
And Alvin and I had spent the night, with my family, conversing upon how a man might know truth, or which of all the religions were correct.
And I did approach the Lord, and I did say, “O Lord, and do not be angry with thy servant because of his weakness before thee; for we know that thou art holy and dwellest in the heavens, and that we are unworthy before thee; because of the fall our natures have become evil continually; nevertheless, O Lord, thou hast given us a commandment that we must call upon thee, that from thee we may receive according to our desires.”
Nevertheless, thou hast been merciful unto us. O Lord, look upon me in pity for I have conversed with my family and we do believe that the way to tell a true religion, or a religion which is thine, O Lord, is to listen to the leadership of the religion, and to obey them and see if the doctrine is thine or not. And we did come to this conclusion by reading thine own words in John 17:7, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.”
And the Lord did speak unto me saying, “Fear not, for I am thy God and will still give the aid. I will not upbraid nor censure those who seek me earnestly. Now as trusting those who state their own authority, this is not a secure method, for behold, every man will claim his own authority. And every authority can be fooled, or speak his own mind, and claim it to be the mind of God. No religion that is mine would depend heavily upon the authority of leadership.”
“But as to trying works and testing them, this thing pleaseth me, for verily, if one did test the words with works, one could find truth. However, there is something that shall be known unto the peoples of the earth as ‘Confirmation Bias’ in that when one embarks upon an experiment upon the word, one is predisposed to believe an outcome, yea, and that very individual can sometimes accept events or words as confirming the outcome, and ignore those that would disprove it.
Therefore, a commandment I give unto you, My servant Joseph, inasmuch as ye have sought me earnestly, in wisdom and in truth, with pure intent, ye shall falsify all thine data. Of every attempt thou shalt attempt to prove it false, that thou mayest be more sure.”
“Nevertheless, I have more to teach thee. Go unto thine home and ponder these things with thine family and return unto me on the morrow that we may yet again converse.”
And Alvin and I did return unto our homes, and our family did discuss these things late into the night. And we did learn many things and think of many things, and we were very excited.